Details of pay supplements paid to those in qualifying roles: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the information on recruit / retention / supplement for roles that have receive pay specialist supplement over their standard remuneration. This is for core SG and agencies. Please breakdown as following:

1) Profession families that receive the allowance for example, Digital, Communications, Procurement and others and the amount of allowance for each area:

2) Total staff within these families that receive the allowance, further broken down by core SG and agencies

3) Total expenditure for last 5 years to end of 25/26 broken down by year

4) Review points for renewal or change of allowance rates for each respective specialist family

Response

We have interpreted the term agencies in your request to mean the agencies and Non-Ministerial Offices (NMOs) that along with the core Scottish Government (SG) Directorates make up the SG Main bargaining unit. These Agencies and NMOs are as follows:

Agencies	Non-Ministerial Offices
Accountant in Bankruptcy	Community Justice Scotland
Disclosure Scotland	Food Standards Scotland
Education Scotland	National Records of Scotland
Scottish Public Pensions Agency	Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
Social Security Scotland	Revenue Scotland
Student Awards Agency for Scotland	Scottish Fiscal Commission
Transport Scotland	Scottish Housing Regulator

Questions 1 & 2

The table below details the profession families and the total number of staff within these families that receive a pay supplement, broken down by Core SG and agencies/NMOs as at 31st March 2026:

SG Core

Profession Family	2026
Audit	17
Communications	159
Digital Data & Technology	846
Science & Engineering	65
Procurement	125
Built Environment	7

Agencies & NMOs

Profession Family	2026
Communications	43
Digital Data & Technology	681
*Education Scotland	114
Science & Engineering	27
Procurement	40
Built Environment	84
*Social Security Scotland - Health	213

*These are pay supplements that are paid to certain qualifying roles, but the supplements are not part of a defined SG profession, but we have added these for completeness.

The table below details the pay supplement amount range within each of the profession families:

Profession Family	Pay Supplement Amount Range
Audit	£750 - £1,750
Procurement	£2,250 - £5,250
Built Environment	£2,250 - £7,862
Digital Data and Technology	£3,000 - £5,000
Communications	£2000 - £5,000
Science & Engineering	£4,250 - £5,000
*Education Scotland	£2,000
*Social Security Scotland - Health	£1,500 - £4,500

*These are pay supplements that are paid to certain qualifying roles, but the supplements are not part of a defined SG profession, but we have added these for completeness.

Question 3

The total value of pay supplement payments paid to qualifying roles by profession over the last 5 years is as follows:

Profession Family	2021/2022	2022/2023	2023/2024	2024/2025	2025/2026
Audit	£37,658	£37,793	£33,665	£28,040	£26,881
Communications	£707,120	£777,232	£814,986	£875,063	£895,800
Digital Data & Technology	£3,038,944	£4,900,667	£6,017,411	£7,157,262	£7,614,518
*Education Scotland	£192,715	£225,623	£218,619	£217,998	£234,331
Science & Engineering	£197,337	£220,376	£270,945	£325,330	£444,553
Procurement	£483,366	£531,937	£521,938	£572,284	£595,320
Built Environment	£262,544	£393,783	£414,205	£417,037	£458,566
*Social Security Scotland Health	£7,768	£145,622	£437,988	£572,741	£713,129

*These are pay supplements that are paid to certain qualifying roles, but the supplements are not part of a defined SG profession, but we have added these for completeness.

Question 4

Pay supplements may be awarded if a post is affected by recruitment and retention difficulties. They are used to attract and retain candidates with the specialist skills needed to fill posts subject to market pressures and are only paid where there is strong, supporting, and up to date evidence (e.g. which demonstrates that the maximum of the relevant Scottish Government pay range is below the median of the relevant market by at least 5%).

Pay Supplements are subject to regular review, generally every 3 years, in line with the Scottish Government Pay Supplement policy to ensure that they remain appropriate and justified in light of up-to date evidence and may following review remain at the same level or alternatively be increased, decreased or withdrawn all together. The reviews for the Digital Data & Technology and the Food Standard Scotland – Vet (part of the Science & Engineering Profession Family) supplements have recently been completed. Reviews of pay supplements for other professions are either currently underway or are being scheduled.

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